Process of making producer-gas.



L. P. LOWE.

PROGESS OF MAKING PRODUCER GAS.

APPLIOATION FILED PEB.18, 1909. 9 7,21 3, Patented Aug. 16, 1910.

INVENTOR,

BY Y

ATTORNEY.

WITNESSEiS: 46% k W 781 UNITED STATES LEON I". LOWE, 01 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

PROCESS OF MAKING PRODUCER-GAS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application and February 18, race. Serial no. 470,541.

7 To all whom itma concern:

Be it known t at I, LaoN P. Lows, a citizen of the; United States, residin at San Francisco, in the county of San ranclsco and State of California, have invented new and useful Improvements in Processes of Making Producer-Gas, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the present invention is to provide a method of making producer gas economically and continuously.

In many localities oil is a cheaper than coal, especially the residual oils that are obtained from the crude oil by distillation. Producer gas is readily obtained from light distillates or very light crude oil, but they are comparatively expensive, while the residuums of the usual crude oils, after distillation, have much less value. It is there fore of great importance to -be able to obtain producer gas from such cheap residual heavier oils.

It has been attempted to make roducer gas from oil by using part of the oi as fuel to generateheat to vaporize the remainder ,of the oil, and to supply with such-oil suiticient air, over and above that required for the combustion of the fuel portion thereof, to make, with the vaporized oil, combustible gases.- But, in practicing such a-method, the difficulties are encountered, especially with heavy asphaltic oils, that the oil thus heated is disassociated into combustible gases, lieavy tarry products and lamp black, if the heat is sufliciently highto cause the formation of lamp black, and which will be the case if a fair amount of the heavy portions of the oil are to be gasified; or the oil is converted into combustible gases and .a greater proportion of heavy tarry products only, if the heat is not sufliciently hi h to form lamp black. In either case the amp black and heavy tarry residuals become waste products, and, indeed, must be removed to make the producer gas commercially available, otherwise they would settle from the as and cause stoppage of the various 'con' duits, engine ports, and the like. They ma sometimes be removed, but only with additional expensive apparatus, in addition to the cost of removal; but in many cases, they would have to be thrown away.

fuel

fatented Aug. 16,1910.

gas from a given amount of material,"-

also to make it possible to use oils or their heavy residuals whibh' could not otherwise be 1 used in the production of producer gas.

In the accom anying drawing, the figure is a vertical section of an apparatus adapted for carrying out my improved process, although it is to be understood that the app. ratus itself forms no part of the invention.

Referring to the drawin 1 indicates the casing of a combined com ustion and as generating chamber, having a refractory inmg 2, an a grate 3. At the top is a feed hoper 4 closed by a door 5, the material falling into the chamber from said feed hopper over a distributor 6. At the bottom of the chamber below the rate on one side is an opening 7 for admitting air and also for removing the ashes, and on the other side a conduit 8 for car ing oil. the producer gas manufactured an preferably leading to means for cr'eatin suction to draw the gas through said con uit. From one side of the top leads a pipe 9 controlled by a valve 10 discharging into a stack 11. Into the top of the chamber do end s rinklers 12 through which crude 01 can e sprinkled closed and the air sup lied through the opening 7 being allow to flow upward through said fire crate until the bed of coal has become incandescent. The apparatus is then ready for continuously car mg on the process. The conduit 7 is clos the valve 10 is opened to admit air, and the conduit 8 is connected to the means for producing suetion which draws the air downward through the chamber and through the incandescent bed of coals. At the same time oil is sprinkled from the sprinklers 12. When the oil, in descending through the chamber, arrives at al-sufiiciently heated zone, in the bed'of coal; it is first decomposed into gas .and heavy rocarbons in the form of tarry products, owing to thecomparativel low temperature at the top of the bed 0 fuel. By gravity and by reason of the suction, these heavy hydrocarbons flow down and into a more highly heated zone, until they reach a point, where the heat is sufliciently great to convert the heavy hydrocarbons into gases and solid carbon in the form of lamp.

black, which lamp black then becomes. a

portion of the bed of fuel, fiized gases )tlSS- -1ng to the suction plpe. The oxygen 0 the air is first used to support combustion, and,

in so doing, is converted into carbonic acid gas, which, subsequently, in its further passage through the bed of incandescent fuel is converted into carbonic oxid. The bed should be replenished With coal from time to time, but such replenishment Will not interfere with the continuity of the process of making producer gas.

If it be desired to bank the fires, as when the making of the producer gas is te1nporarily stopped, the door 5 and valve 10 are closed. It will be understood that the amount of coal used is comparatively small having regard to the quantity of producer gas formed, because of the fact that a great proportion of the fuel is obtained from the [.phaltic or tarry constituents, because these have already been removed from the oil and utilized in the immediate production of gas;

fourth, considerable marsh gas is obtained from the oil, so that a high grade of producer gas is formed; fifth, the apparatus is cheap and simple in construction and the operation is economical.

I claim The process ofmaking producer gas which consists in passing air through an ignited bed of solid fuel to heat the same to moandescence and then passing oil and air into and through said incandescent bed in a downward direction, to, first, disassociate the oil into gases and heavy hydro-carbons, e

and then to convert the heavy hydro-carbons into gases and solid carbons, the latter combining With the air to maintain the proper temperature and assist in forming the producer gas in the usual manner, substantially as described. 1

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of tWo subscribing Witnesses.

LEON P. LOWE.

Witnesses:

FRANCIS .M. WRIGHT, D. B. RICHARDS. 

